MR-TOF-MS for ISOL and in-flight facilities: experiments, beam diagnostics, applications

by Dr Ali Mollaebrahimi (Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen)

Thursday 14 Nov 2024, 11:00 → 13:00 Europe/Rome

C. Villi meeting room

Studying exotic nuclei with extreme neutron-to-proton ratios is crucial for advancing our understanding of fundamental nuclear properties, which is essential for comprehending the formation and existence of heavy elements in the universe. Mass spectrometry serves as a versatile and sensitive tool for investigating nuclear structure and decay properties. However, producing and measuring rare nuclei is often highly challenging due to their low production cross-sections and significant background contamination. As a result, mass separation and isobar purification are key to many new experiments.

Nuclei of interest are typically produced using two main methods: in-flight and ISOL (Isotope Separation On-Line) techniques. The in-flight method employs an advanced fragment separator to identify nuclei based on their mass-to-charge ratio (m/q). In contrast, the ISOL method primarily relies on decay spectroscopy, which becomes increasingly limited for exotic nuclei far from the valley of stability.

In recent years, Multiple-Reflection Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometers (MR-TOF-MS) have emerged as powerful and versatile instruments, capable of performing standalone mass measurements as well as beam diagnostics and mass separations in ISOL facilities. These instruments offer sensitivity orders of magnitude greater than standard yield stations and are independent of the decay properties of the nuclei. This talk will provide an overview of recent developments and experiments involving MR-TOF-MS setups at the FRS Ion Catcher and TITAN facilities.